#mandatory reporting

Three days ago the DOJ and several Washington dioceses pressured the state of Washington into granting Roman Catholic priests exemption from mandatory reporting of sexual abuse. Teachers have to report it, doctors and psychiatrists have to as well -- but not Catholic priests. In the past, such a heinous double standard was only thinkable in a concordat country but now even American clergy are indemnified against their crimes. A lot of sore bottoms will come from this...

You pissed on our laws, Catholics. And for that you will be pissed on in turn. This is just the beginning.

Alex Ashley at Rolling Stone:

On the morning of May 2, 2025, supporters of Washington Senate Bill 5375 were ushered through the massive concrete arches and up the grand staircases of the Washington state Capitol — the veins of Alaskan Tokeen marble guiding them past oil portraits and century-old busts — to the governor’s conference room on the second floor.  Inside, amid the dark wood paneling and gleaming seal of the state, Bob Ferguson, Washington’s new governor and former attorney general, addressed the small crowd of advocates, lawmakers, and child-abuse survivors who had gathered behind him. 

“I’m a Catholic as some of you know. I’m aware of my upbringing,” he said, before adding plainly: “For me this is very clear legislation and important legislation.” Ferguson uncapped a blue felt-tip Paper Mate and, with the stroke of the pen, signed into law one of the most consequential child protection measures in recent memory, mandating the state’s clergy — for the first time in 50 years — to report child abuse.

“The room felt like it was buzzing,” recalls Sara Young, an advocate who was there that morning. She grew up one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, surviving years of abuse she says congregation elders ignored. “None of us really knew what to expect, but being there felt like a weight finally lifted.” For supporters like Young, it closed a loophole that let clergy across denominations keep abuse in the dark. For opponents, it was an attack on religious freedom with no exception for sacred rites like confession. In that moment, Ferguson closed the door on a battle two decades in the making — and opened another. When the room cleared that morning, no one — not even Ferguson — could have predicted just how quickly the law’s challengers would mobilize. Within 72 hours, Trump’s Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, had launched a First Amendment probe into what it called an “anti-Catholic” law.

The Archdiocese of Seattle, along with the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane, filed a federal lawsuit — Etienne v. Ferguson — claiming the new law was a punch thrown straight at the Catholic church; that it forces priests to choose between obeying the state or violating a core religious duty. 

[...]

Washington Closes the Clergy Loophole 

Under Washington’s new child protection law, clergy of all denominations are on the hook, just like physicians, nurses, social workers, teachers, law enforcement officers, childcare providers, and others. The law does not force priests to testify in court, turn over notes, or violate attorney-client privilege. What it does is narrow but consequential: If clergy learn about child abuse — even during confession — they have to notify authorities within 48 hours. That single requirement closes a loophole most states still leave wide open.  Across the U.S., child abuse reporting laws are a fragmented patchwork shaped by decades of political compromise and religious lobbying. Over the past two decades, efforts in other states — such as Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin — to remove the clergy-penitent exemption have routinely stalled long before any high-profile showdown.

Technically, clergy in all 50 states, D.C., and Guam are mandatory reporters of child abuse. But 33 states carve out exemptions for what is learned in confession or spiritual counseling.

[...]

Thou Shalt Not Tell?

For Catholics, the confessional isn’t just private counseling; it’s a foundational sacrament. Behind the screen, a parishioner quietly confesses what weighs on their soul: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” The priest listens, counsels, prescribes a penance, and offers absolution. Known as reconciliation, the rite is essential for spiritual life: Without it, believers cannot receive the Eucharist, the church’s central act of worship. In a public statement titled “Clergy: Answerable to God or the State?” Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne — the lead plaintiff in the church’s lawsuit against Washington — invoked canon law, the church’s legal code, which deems the confessional seal “inviolable” and makes breaking it a crime. He warned plainly that any priest who violated it to report child abuse would face expulsion from the church. Unlike abusing a child, breaking the seal triggers latae sententiae: automatic excommunication. 

[...] But not so for the Trump DOJ, who are advancing a far more sweeping argument that goes for the law’s jugular.  By filing a formal complaint, the Department of Justice is effectively teaming up with Washington’s Catholic bishops to overturn the state’s mandatory reporting law, in one of the most aggressive federal moves to back organized religion in recent memory.  “Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the sacrament of confession have no place in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in a June 23 press release.  It’s a stark divide. The bishops frame this as a limited fight to protect the sacred Catholic rite of confession. The DOJ sees something much bigger: a sweeping threat to religious liberty for everyone. While the church asks for a surgical carveout, the feds want the whole law gone, putting all clergy back in the clear with no duty to report abuse.

[...]

Privilege Across Religions

Etienne v. Ferguson hinges on the argument that Washington’s law imposes special burdens on Catholic clergy that do not apply equally to other religions. “Because the Catholic church is one of the few religious organizations with a doctrine of absolute confidentiality,” the complaint asserts, Washington’s law “uniquely targets and burdens Catholic priests.”  But central to the push for reform as Washington’s new mandatory reporting law moved through the legislature was evidence of how clergy-penitent privilege had been exploited in other faith communities. Advocates argued that scrapping the clergy reporting exemption wasn’t about picking on any one faith, but leveling the playing field — making sure every religious institution, no matter how powerful, must play by the same rules when it comes to protecting children.

If you work with children and you see something suspicious report it immediately, don't assume someone else already has ...

"One 2022 study found that 91 percent of women given fentanyl in their epidurals later tested positive for the drug"

So Informed:

In over half of U.S. states, religious clergy are exempt from laws requiring professionals to report suspected child abuse to authorities. These exemptions are made a reality under what's known as the clergy loophole, which protects information shared during confessional settings, and have allowed for an unknown number of predators to continue abusing children despite having confessed to their crimes.

Mandatory Reporting Laws – With One Major Exception

Nearly every state mandates that certain professionals report known or suspected child abuse. These include:

Social workers

Teachers, principals, and school officials

Physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers

Therapists and mental health professionals

Childcare workers

Medical examiners or coroners

Social workers

Law enforcement officers

Some states also require reporting from additional roles like probation officers, domestic violence advocates, camp counselors, and even IT professionals. Yet in 32 states, clergy are not required to report child abuse disclosed during confession.

How the Loophole Persists

Religious institutions, particularly churches, have actively lobbied against closing this loophole, framing mandatory reporting as an infringement on religious freedom. They argue that forcing clergy to disclose confessional information violates sacred traditions and religious protections. Churches argue that the information is protected under "clergy-penitent privilege" (for those who do not attend church, they're talking about information shared during a confession). So, in 32 states, clergy are exempt from reporting child abuse if they learn about it in a confessional conversation. To put this into perspective: when you see a therapist or other mental healthcare professional, for example, you work with them under "therapist-patient privilege". This means that what you share with them cannot be shared with others; it creates a standard of trust. However, if you disclose to your therapist that you have harmed or intend to harm another person, or have been the victim of child abuse, your therapist must report this.

A Pattern of Abuse and Concealment

Allowing clergy to withhold reports of child abuse is alarming, especially when considering the long history of abuse within religious institutions. Religious institutions, most notably the Catholic Church, have a long and documented history of tolerating, covering up, and enabling child sexual abuse. Internal reports and public investigations reveal consistent efforts to shield perpetrators and silence victims. This pattern is not limited to the Catholic Church. Other denominations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), have also faced incredibly serious allegations. Yet, in 2023, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Church could withhold testimony and documents relating to child abuse disclosed in confession under the state's clergy privilege laws.

These 32 states allow clergy to withhold information about child abuse disclosed during confession:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.